Quotes
‘What is the Royal Society for if
not for such men as Armstrong?’
Michael Faraday,
proposing Armstrong as a Fellow of the Royal Society
‘The Armstrong gun could do
everything but speak.’
Duke of Cambridge,
commander-in-chief of the British Army
‘Armstrong’s works at Elswick may in their way be described
as almost one of the wonders of the world.’
Lord Randolph
Churchill
‘An inspection of our places of industry which omits a view
of the Elswick Works is rather like the play of Hamlet with the part of the prince left out.’
Sir W. G. Armstrong
‘The wonders of science that Cragside could show were beyond
any oriental palace-builder, even Kubla Khan himself. . . Most marvellous of
all were the incandescent lamps that blazed out from the windows at night with
a brilliance quite different from candle or gas.’
June Knox-Mawer
‘The name of Armstrong will always be identified with
scientific discovery and industrial success.’
King Edward VII
‘On some rare individuals nature is pleased to bestow the
gifts of both invention and organization, and then she produces the “hero” or
great man in industry – a Krupp, an Armstrong, or a Siemens.’
The Times
‘The Great Northumbrian . . . I like to think of him going
down with his beautiful lucid intellect still undimmed at the close of the
century to whose triumphal progress he had contributed so much.’
Viscount Grey of Falloden
‘What else could you expect? No engineering firm ever
contained so much brains.’
Sir Alexander Meadows
Rendel on the extraordinary success of the Armstrong firm
‘Armstrong’s wasn’t just a factory in a city suburb; at its
peak it was Newcastle.’
David Bean
‘It is almost certainly no exaggeration to say that without
Vickers Armstrong the Second World War could not have been won.’
Harold Evans
‘Armstrong’s long life is effectively the story of Tyneside
and of the golden age of engineering.’
Matt Ridley
‘Engineers back then were rock-and-roll gods with a hint of
Hollywood.’
Jeremy Clarkson